Derek Harper

Derek Harper
Personal information
Born (1961-10-13) October 13, 1961
Elberton, Georgia
Nationality American
Listed height 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Listed weight 185 lb (84 kg)
Career information
High school North Shore
(West Palm Beach, Florida)
College Illinois (1980–1983)
NBA draft 1983 / Round: 1 / Pick: 11th overall
Selected by the Dallas Mavericks
Playing career 1983–1999
Position Point guard
Number 5, 11, 12
Career history
1983–1994 Dallas Mavericks
1994–1996 New York Knicks
1996–1997 Dallas Mavericks
1997–1998 Orlando Magic
1999 Los Angeles Lakers
Career highlights and awards
Career NBA statistics
Points 16,006 (13.3 ppg)
Assists 6,577 (5.5 apg)
Steals 1,957 (1.6 spg)
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com

Derek Ricardo Harper (born October 13, 1961) is a retired American professional basketball player. A Second-Team All-American at the University of Illinois, he was the 11th overall pick of the 1983 NBA draft and spent 16 seasons as a point guard in the National Basketball Association with the Dallas Mavericks, New York Knicks, Orlando Magic and Los Angeles Lakers.

College

After graduating from Roosevelt Junior High School and then North Shore High School in West Palm Beach, Harper played three seasons for the Fighting Illini and coach Lou Henson having his best season in 1982–1983, when he led the Fighting Illini in scoring with 15.4 points per game. Harper was named First-Team All-Big Ten and Second-Team All-American in 1983, and was Honorable Mention All-Big Ten in both 1981 and 1982. Harper averaged 4.7 assists per game for his collegiate career, and led the Big Ten in assists in the 1981–1982 season. Harper was elected to the "Illini Men's Basketball All-Century Team" in 2004.

Professional

At 6 ft 4 in, Harper was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks with the 11th overall pick of the 1983 NBA draft. He spent his first ten seasons with them, averaging 15 points and 6.1 assists. For almost the entire time in his first stint with the team, he was part of the starting backcourt tandem with All-Star shooting guard Rolando Blackman.[1]

Harper was traded to the New York Knicks (where he was reunited with Blackman) 28 games into the 1993–94 season. The Knicks were looking for a defensive point guard to replace the injured Doc Rivers, who was sidelined for the rest the season. The shift sent him from a team that finished 13-69 to being an integral part of one that came within one game of winning the 1994 NBA Championship.

After one more season with the Knicks, Harper returned to Dallas in 1996–97, then played one season each with the Orlando Magic and the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers traded him to the Detroit Pistons, but he retired without reporting to the team.

Harper played in 1199 regular season games in his career, tying him for 35th in NBA history (as of the 2013–14 NBA season).[2] He retired having the eleventh most steals and the seventeenth most assists in NBA history. He is also the Mavericks' career leader in those categories. Harper is widely regarded as one of the best players to never have been selected to an All-Star game.

Post-career

Harper presently lives in Dallas with his family. His daughter is Dana Harper, who is currently competing in The Voice. He is now a game analyst for the Dallas Mavericks on their locally broadcast games. Beginning in fall 2005, he was the weekend sports anchor at KTXA serving the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex until the station ended its newscasts. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban had earlier announced that Harper's jersey was to be retired during the 2013–2014 season, but later Cuban said that it would not be retired that season.[3]

NBA career statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high

Regular season

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1983–84 Dallas 82 1 20.9 .443 .115 .673 2.1 2.9 1.2 .3 5.7
1984–85 Dallas 82 1 27.0 .520 .344 .721 2.4 4.4 1.8 .5 9.6
1985–86 Dallas 79 39 27.2 .534 .235 .747 2.9 5.3 1.9 .3 12.2
1986–87 Dallas 77 76 33.2 .501 .358 .684 2.6 7.9 2.2 .3 16.0
1987–88 Dallas 82 82 37.0 .459 .313 .759 3.0 7.7 2.0 .4 17.0
1988–89 Dallas 81 81 36.6 .477 .356 .806 2.8 7.0 2.1 .5 17.3
1989–90 Dallas 82 82 36.7 .488 .371 .794 3.0 7.4 2.3 .3 18.0
1990–91 Dallas 77 77 37.4 .467 .362 .731 3.0 7.1 1.9 .2 19.7
1991–92 Dallas 65 64 34.6 .443 .312 .759 2.6 5.7 1.6 .3 17.7
1992–93 Dallas 62 60 34.0 .419 .393 .756 2.0 5.4 1.3 .3 18.2
1993–94 Dallas 28 28 31.9 .380 .352 .560 2.0 3.5 1.6 .1 11.6
1993–94 New York 54 27 24.3 .430 .367 .743 1.6 4.4 1.5 .1 8.6
1994–95 New York 80 80 34.0 .446 .363 .724 2.4 5.7 1.0 .1 11.5
1995–96 New York 82 82 35.3 .464 .372 .757 2.5 4.3 1.6 .1 14.0
1996–97 Dallas 75 29 29.5 .444 .341 .742 1.8 4.3 1.2 .2 10.0
1997–98 Orlando 66 45 26.7 .417 .360 .696 1.6 3.5 1.1 .2 8.6
1998–99 L. A. Lakers 45 29 24.9 .412 .368 .813 1.5 4.2 1.0 .1 6.9
Career 1,199 883 31.5 .463 .354 .745 2.4 5.5 1.6 .3 13.3

Playoffs

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1984 Dallas 10 – 22.6 .389 .375 .714 2.0 2.8 1.1 .2 5.0
1985 Dallas 4 0 33.0 .476 .333 .714 3.0 5.0 1.5 .3 6.5
1986 Dallas 10 10 34.8 .533 .571 .750 1.9 7.6 2.3 .0 13.4
1987 Dallas 4 4 30.8 .500 .222 .800 3.0 6.8 1.8 .0 16.5
1988 Dallas 17 17 35.4 .441 .250 .729 2.5 7.1 1.9 .3 13.5
1990 Dallas 3 3 39.7 .438 .313 .688 2.7 7.7 1.3 .0 19.3
1994 New York 23 22 32.6 .429 .341 .643 2.3 4.5 1.8 .0 11.4
1995 New York 11 11 35.3 .514 .574 .750 3.5 5.6 1.0 .1 14.3
1996 New York 8 8 36.6 .354 .314 .733 2.1 4.8 1.3 .1 10.0
1999 L. A. Lakers 7 0 16.1 .419 .100 .500 1.4 2.1 .3 .0 4.3
Career 97 75 31.9 .449 .365 .712 2.4 5.3 1.5 .1 11.3

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/blackro01.html
  2. ↑ http://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/g_career.html
  3. ↑ http://thesmokingcuban.com/2014/03/23/dallas-mavericks-retiring-derek-harpers-jersey/
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